


Back When We Had Nothing

by Marena



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M, Nostalgia, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 14:30:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11969325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marena/pseuds/Marena
Summary: Steve and Bucky are preparing to move in together for the second time in their lives. As he's packing, Steve begins to wonder if maybe things weren't better when they didn't have so many things.





	Back When We Had Nothing

**Author's Note:**

> I heard the song "Back When We Had Nothing" by the Banners and thought of these two.

It didn’t occur to Steve just how much stuff he’d acquired after coming out of the ice until he had to box it all up and move it. He didn’t think about the fact that he had three pairs of running shoes, two pairs of dress shoes, and a pair of Doc Martin’s to go along side his multiple pairs of combat boots until he was boxing them all up. True enough, the majority of the shoes had merely appeared in his bedroom closet at the compound, purchased by Tony via Friday or Pepper to solve what the modern man saw as a deficiency in Steve’s wardrobe. He hadn’t cared one way or the other about the shoes much besides how well they fit for the job at hand. He hadn’t even really thought much about how for the majority of his life he’d only had one pair that was usually on the verge of falling apart despite the patches he put in the rubber. But here he was staring at all of these shoes agape, shocked that he hadn’t realized just how many pairs he had until he was putting them in a box. And that was just shoes!

His eyes circled his bedroom, noting the useless brick-a-brac sitting on his desk along side his sketch books and art supplies, the dozens of books and Blu-ray discs neatly sorted by title, and the seemingly countless clothes that hung in his closet or were folded out of sight in his drawers. It physically hurt to think of all of the junk that had been put into storage when he’d moved from his S.H.I.E.L.D apartment to the Avengers compound. There had to be probably a dozen or more boxes waiting there on top of what he was supposed to be boxing up in here. At that moment, he almost felt his long gone asthma was taking hold again. He tossed the last pair of shoes into the box and rubbed his eyes irritably.

“Don’t tell me you’re slowin’ down in there, old man,” a voice chided from the doorway. “I’ve got my gear already packed.”

Steve looked up and grinned at the man leaning in the doorway. Even after six months of having Bucky living with them under supervision at the compound, Steve would never get tired of seeing him. His eyes always devoured every single line and nuance of the former Winter Soldier. His Bucky had taken a long time to come back and maybe never would fully come back, but he was good enough that the board and doctors had cleared him for civilian life. God, was he a glorious sight as he stood there relaxed and smiling.

“Remember when we first moved in together?” Steve asked, taping up the box in front of him. “We had a suitcase each with maybe five things inside and the clothes on our back. We ended up with the mismatched dishes you could swipe from that diner you bussed tables at and a few pots and pans left from Ma.”

“Don’t forget the blankets that my mother made for us,” Bucky added with a sad smile. He flopped down on the bed beside Steve and eyed the closet. “I don’t have a quarter of that back in my room, and it’s still more than I’ve ever owned before.”

“Do ya think people are happier now?” the blonde mused.

Bucky shrugged. “You’re a better judge than me. You’ve been off ice a helluva longer. All I can say is that it’s nice to know that more people have full bellies than they did back then.”

Steve nodded and began pulling outfit after outfit out of the closet. Without being asked to help, Bucky folded each one and stacked it in the box until it was full. They repeated the process until the closet was empty and it was time to move on to another area of the room. Finally, Steve found the words to say what he’d been thinking all along.  
“You know, I’d give it all up,” he said, laying a hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “All of this. The serum. The Howlies. The Avengers. I’d give up everything if we could just go back to that apartment and live out our lives together. This,” he said gesturing to the room, “it all feels like the world’s worst consolation prize.”

Soft gray eyes locked with his own, and Bucky pulled Steve back down beside him for a one armed hug. “This ain’t a consolation prize, Rogers. Maybe all that time with the shrink has me looking at things a bit too optimistically, but I’ve been thinking it’s a second chance. Part of me will always want to go back to before… well, before all of it, including the war, but that ain’t how this works. Unless Stark has a time machine shoved up that smart ass of his, this is where we get to start over.”

“Well, I’ll let Rhodey look for it,” Steve grumbled, leaning into Bucky’s safe, warm embrace.

Bucky laughed and kissed his forehead. “Think you can make room for my clothes in the closet with all this?”

“Have you seen the size of the house Tony bought us? We have walk-in closets—plural—in our damn master bedroom! Can you imagine that? Who owns that much stuff?”

 


End file.
